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Laptop or desktop
Ok I normally use a gaming laptop due to the fact i travel a lot.
Soon however i will be moving to Japan and should have a job where I can just settle down for a year or 2. So i want to get a new computer. I am not sure weather to buy a new laptop, or build a pc.
For a pc I would be using.
Ram
OS
Video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102921&cm_re=6950-_-14-102-921-_-Product
CPU
Hardrive, case and other parts would be purhcased when i got to japan.
(yes i stole these from a build here)
For a laptop
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP8130
I would upgrade to the
Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz), 6MB L3 Cache, FCPGA10/Socket G2
Questions
How much of performance difference would I see between these two?
I have some wiggle room money wise, so upgrade suggestions are welcome? but I do not want to spend 300 dollars for 10% more performance.
Currently my laptop can run most games well on medium to low settings. It can run most MMOs on high (rift for instance). So if when I travel i can always use it for the next year or 2.
I also might have a job with lots of downtime at work, so having a laptop i can toat a round might be worth a small drop in performance.
Edits:
Possibilties
Comments
Desktop is the best bet..
I used to play with an asus gaming laptop, it was good enough to play most games on medium ( bad company 2, blackops and crisis ).. I then watched my friend play the same games on his desktop build with the visuals capped out and the games looked so much better and enjoyable it was crazy .. Now ya.. some laptops are sturdy gaming machines but they will run you over 1400$ easily
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
There are going to be new mobo's and cpu's coming out late 2011 that will be the high end sandy bridge that goes along with the new 2011 socket MOBO's being released at the same time as the sandy bridge CPU. The ATI 6990 is running 7-800 bucks right now and it is the best single videocard in terms of power and performance but ATI is coming out with the 7000 series by the end of 2011 as well. Expect price drops for the 6xxx series as well as the 2600k sandy bridge CPU.
You should also double that RAM as well.. 4gb is a little constricting when running higher end games like crysis. Crytek themselves stated that they hope the next gen consoles come with at least 8 GB of ram so expect to need at least that on the PC side.
If you are a builder yourself you can put this together fairly nicely and save a good chunk of cash when buying from a website, but I do like ibuypower.com when it comes with custom PC's. You could even go with some overclocking along with watercooling for much better performance. You can take a sandybridge 2600k right now (3.4GHz) and push out a good 5.0 GHz with some decent water cooling. Add that to a nice (not cheap) case that has a good deal of fans and you could be pushing out crysis 2 on very-high with no problems at all.
I will be purchasing around late may and june. So will not be waiting till late 2011.
What would say is the best bang for the buck money wise is?
2500k seems like it be overclocked to the 2600s level pretty easily. And I have heard some people say the 2600 is not really worth the 100 bucks extra because of this.
Also what would say is the best videocard in the 300 dollar range?
As far as as laptop vs. desktop, the GTX 460m is going to be completely destroyed by the HD 6950. they're really not even in the same catagory.
Personally, I'd go with the desktop unless you're travaling a lot or money's no object.
As far as desktop cards go, the gtx 570 and the gtx 480 are going to be fairly close performance-wise but the 570 is going to have the newer optimizations and will probably be a longer lived card. Both are better performers than the 6950 but both also cost more. If your can spare the cash I'd go with the 570.
I also agree with doubling the ram to 8gb.
Yeh, seems like going a little high on the card is a good idea. Keep the chip at 2500k though, can always upgrade later down the line. Plus there might be a price drop in a month or so. can always hope.
How about 570 vs 6970?
If and where applicable, (meaning if you can deal with a pc that sits in one location and you don't need mobility), a hand built desktop is always, always, always going to give you the best bang for the buck over time. You may pay a little more at the first outlay of money, due to having to buy a case, PSU, CPU and heat sink, MoBo, etc... but down the line when it's time to 'upgrade' your laptop (read: buy another one) the desktop build already has a leg up. This is simply due to the exponential rate at which newer technology is released and the depreciation of tech values. Laptops are quickly becoming 'throw-away' devices. Once you purchase a laptop, even a high end 'gaming' build, you are pretty much stuck with it the way it is, upgrades and laptops don't really go hand in hand. Sure, it 'can' be done but in reality the desktop build allows you to stagger your upgrades at your leisure. Don't like the graphics card, get a better GPU or run multiples, need more power to run multiple GPU's get a bigger PSU, want to run a SSD root drive with a 10TB RAID array, you have rack space to spare... If you are 'smart' when building a desktop setup, you can buy one or two steps down from the top of the technology tree at a much more reasonable price... Whereas a new 'RadForce XYZ-5000' GPU is released for $450, within a few days/weeks the previous GPU's that were $250/$350/$450 all step down in pricing and continue to fall in price to allow for the new card to take the top spot... There is nothing wrong with the older cards in fact they may be better than what you have currently and offer similar performance to the new card. So, every two years or so instead of having to buy a new laptop at $700/$1000/$1500/etc... You simply pick and choose what parts to buy and upgrade... To me it's common sense. If you don't NEED mobile gaming then go with a Desktop setup, If you want some mobility for browsing the web, emails and maybe some word processing, honestly, get a nice smartphone, netbook or an iPad. Laptops as we know them today are on the verge of following the Dodo (aka: Extinct)
Oh, and don't fall prey to the ABC card vs. XYZ card arguments... In a month or two a new ABC+1 card vs. XYZ+1 card argument will ensue and they will forget all about the previous generation constantly chasing the top rung.
my $0.02
Peace!
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Vincent: I don't watch TV.
Jules: Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?
I have been using nVidia cards for the past 5 years or so and have liked them a lot but my next PC will be going with an ATI card.. so I would say 6970. A 2500k is also a nice choice but I would wait till the 7000 series GFX cards and new sandy bridge CPU's come out in late 2011 before I bought anything.. expect price drops.
I will be Japan by late 2011, parts their are more expensive. Anything imported will be taxed. Late june early july will be the purchasing time. What out then is what I will be using.
Also as for overclocking i will not be doing anything insane that requires water cooling, its just above my skill. Also i will probably avoid SLI or crossfire.
2500k, ATI 6970, Mobo of choice, Highest speed 8gb for that mobo.. maybe an SSD if your feelin fancy with a 1TB drive backup
For budget you can get this combo...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.634263
Buy the 6970 and another 4gb and your golden there.
The desktop processor will offer about 50% more performance than the laptop processor. They're actually different bins of the same chip, with the laptop version clocked and volted lower to reduce power consumption.
The desktop Radeon HD 6950 video card will offer about triple the video performance of the laptop GeForce GTX 460M. Yes, triple. You have to give up a lot of performance to squeeze into a laptop form factor without frying it. A Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570 would be faster yet.
Don't get a reference GeForce GTX 480, as that's a bad card. It runs dangerously hot and obnoxiously loud. A reference GeForce GTX 570 gives comparable performance with much less power consumption, and actually has a better cooler on it. If you'd prefer an Nvidia card, then that's probably the most natural option.
A Radeon HD 6970 is a better card than a GeForce GTX 570. It tends to perform better, actually uses less power, and has a better feature set. If they're the same price, then get the 6970. But it's not a huge gap in any of those respects, so if the GTX 570 is $50 cheaper, I'd sooner get that than the 6970.
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Basically, if you need a gaming laptop, then get a gaming laptop. Even if you need both a laptop and a gaming machine, it doesn't follow that you need a gaming laptop. But if you can play either on a desktop or on a laptop, then the desktop will be much nicer, and for cheaper.
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If you're not buying until June or July, then you might as well see what AMD's upcoming Bulldozer processor offers.
Yeh i will wait to see what bulldozer has to offer.